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RESOLUTIONS 



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PENNSYLVANIA, 

Meld at Willia^nsport, June 26, 1867 : 



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EEPXJBLIC^J^ PLA.TFOR 



The Republicans of Pennsylvania, appealing again to the people, take 
pleasure in re- calling the repeated occasions on which the voters of the Com- 
monwealth have sustained and ratified their candidates and principles ; and, 
strongly impressed with the importance of the issues involved in the ensu- 
ing election, make this declaration of their opinions and purposes : 

First. That, in the name of the N'ation saved from treason, we demand 
security against its repetition, by exacting from the vanquished such guar- 
anties as will make treason so odious as to be forever impossible. 

Second. That, as in the past we cordially justified the administration of 
Abraham Lincoln in all necessary acts for the suppression of the rebellion, 
we record it as our judgment that the administration of Andrew Johnson 
has been chiefly faithless, in that it has failed lo try to gather up and fix 
in the organic and statute law the great principles which the war has set- 
tled, and without whose adoption as a rule of action peace is but a delu- 
sion and a snare. 

Third,. That, in the completion of the task of reconstruction so firmly as 
to be perpetual, it is indispensable that traitors beaten in the field shall not 
find a sanctuary in the courts ; that the law shall not be tortured to justify 
or palliate the crimes of which the country's enemies have been gmilty ; and 
that the law of the war shall be so distinctly declared by the courts that 
no disturbing and paralyzing doubts may ever be raised, as in 1861, respect- 
ing the essential rights of the Government, or the personal duties of the 
citizen. 

Fourth. That this convention, speaking for the Republicans of Pctnusyi- 
vania, unreservedly endorse the Reconstruction measures of the Thirty- 
ninth and Fortieth Congresses as based upon sound principles, essentially 
just and wise, and promising an early, loyal and permanent restoration of 
the E,ebel States to their proper share in the government of the Union. 
That we denounce and contemn the efforts of President Johnson, through 
his pliant Attorney General and a majority of his Cabinet, to evade those 
la^s by. interfering to obstruct and prevent their enforcement in the spif^^c 



4 

in which they were enacted ; and that we call upon Congress, soon to meety 
promptly and decisively to dispose of this new Nullification. 

Fifth. That the thanks of the loyal men of this Comm.on wealth are here- 
by tendered to Major General Sheridan and Major General Sickels, for 
their publicly- declared unwillingness to be instrumental, in the startling and 
truthful words of the former, in opening, under Presidential dictation, "a 
broad, macadamized road for perjury and fraud to travel od," to the coveted 
re-possession of political powet in the Rebel States ; and that this conven- 
tion confidently expect that General Grant will vindicate his past record 
by cordially sustaining them in their patriotic efforts to execute the law. 

Sixth. That President Johnson further merits our condemnation for his 
reckless paisdoa, and attempted restoration to political rights, of many of 
the chief conspirators against the Union ; and that especially his persistent 
efforts to compel the release of Jefferson Davis, without question for his 
crimes, were a reproach to the administration of justice and an insult to the 
whole loyal people of the Nation. ■ 

Seventh. That warned by past misfortunes, we ask that the Supreme 
Court of the State be placed in harmony with the political opinions of the 
majority of the people, to the end that the court may never again, by unjust 
decisions, seek to set aside laws vital to the nation, nor imperil the safety 
of public securities, nor impair the operation of the bounty, pension and tax 
laws which were required for the public defence, nor in any way thwart 
measures which jvere deemed essential to public protection ; but that, on 
the other hand, it may become and remain a fit and faithful interpreter of 
the liberal spirit of the age, a bulwark of public faith, and an impartial and 
fearless exponent of the equal rights of man. 

Eighth. That Protection being a cardinal feature of the Republican creed, 
we trust that such legislation will be secured at the earliest practical pe- 
riod as will afford adequate protection to American Industry. 

Ninth. That, in conformity with the pledges given last fall by both can- 
didates for Governor, we now demand the enactment of a free railroad law, 
by which the enterprise of our people may be stimulated, and the resources 
ol' the Commonwealth developed. 

Tenth. That in Governor John W. Geary we recognize an honest and 
ocrarageous public servant, who, in the chair of State, is add ing freshness to 
laurels gallantly won in war. 

Eleventh. That the gratitude of the people to the soldiers and saiiorg 
whose bravery met and overthrew the slaveholders' rebellion, should have 
repeated and emphatic expression ; and that we heartily disapprove of an€ 
eondemn the course of the Secretary of the Treasury in postponing and ig- 
aoiing the just claims of our brave defenders upon the bounty of the Govern- 
ment, awarded to them by the National Congress. 



Twelfth. That in the Hon. Henry W. Williams, of Allegheny county, 
we present to the people of Pennsylvania an eminent jurist ; one in every 
way well qualified for the responsible duties of the office of Judge of the 
Supreme Court ; able as a lawyer ; impartial, prompt, and thorough as a 
judge ; honest, upright, without suspicion as a man, and loyal and unwaver- 
ing in his devotion to the cause of his country. 



A.DDRESS 

OF THE 

UKIOI MPUBLICAi^ STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE. 



Committee Rooms, | 
Haerisbueg, July 26, 1867. J 

TO THE PEOPLE OF PEI^NSYLVANIA : 

Fellow citizens: — The official term of Geo. W. Woodward, Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of the State, is about to expire ; and under the Con- 
stitution his successor will be elected on the second Tuesday of October 
next. This election is every way important, and the more so, because of 
the great principles and issues involved, and of the fact that the term is 
for fifteen years. 

All the powers of our Governments, both National and State, are divided 
into three classes : the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The people 
are the source of all power; and our Constitutions provide the manner in 
which all offices shall be filled, and the terms for which they shall be held. 
The National judiciary being for life, and that of the State judiciary fifteen 
years, changes in these tribunals are wrought more slowly than in the other 
branches of the Government ; and hence should be made with the greater 
caution and wisdom ; for nothing is of greater public importance than a 
wise and patriotic judiciary. Our past history shows a constant tendency 
in these several departments to enlarge their respective jurisdictions, and 
oecasionally to encroach on each other ; and especially is this true of the 
judiciary. It is but recently the Supreme Court of the United States, in 
the interests of slavery, gravely undertook to overturn the foundations of the 
Government on that question, and to nullify and destroy acts of Congress 
enacted by the men who made the Constitution, The Dred Scott decision 
virtually legalized and extended slavery over all the Territories of the 
Union, in draance of Congress and the people; and laid down principles, 
which, but for subsequent events, would have extended slavery and made 
it lawful in all the States. And after the recent civil war was inaugurated, 
our State judiciary, by a denial of the constitutional powers of Congress 
and of our State Legislature, in measures absolutely necessary to carry on 
the war and save the nation, so imperiled our cause as to make intelligent 



patriots everywhere tremble for the issue of the contest. True, these false 
theories did not prevail. But it is equally true the continued assertion of 
them paralyzed the arms of both the National and State Governments, dis- 
tracted a{pd disheartened our people, gave aid and comfort to the enemy, 
prolonged the war, and added immeasurably to our sacrifices of blood and 
treasure. Hence it is, " That warned by past misfortunes, we ask that the 
Supreme Court of the State be placed in harmony with the political opin- 
ions of the majority of the people, to the end that the Court may never 
again, by unjust decisions, seek to set aside laws vital to the nation." 

Who, then, are Henry W. Williams and George Sharswood, the candi- 
dates for this vacant seat upon the Supreme bench ? What are their past 
records, and where do they stand, in these eventful times, and on these mo- 
mentous issues ? The weal or woe of the Commonwealth, and perhaps of 
the nation, is involved in these questions ; and it behooves every patriotic 
voter in the State to examine them with care. 

Of Judge Williams, the Union Republican candidate, we here propose to 
give no extended biography. He is a high-toned Christian gentleman, 
about forty-six years of age, a ripe scholar, and a learned and eminent 
lawyer, with fifteen years' judicial experience on the bench of the District 
Court of Allegheny county. He was first elected judge in 1851, when he 
ran over one thousand votes ahead of his ticket, and was re-elected in 1861, 
by the unanimous vote of all parties. The following extract, from an edi- 
tioriai in the Pittsburg Post, (the principal Democratic paper of the West,) 
shows the estimation in which he is held by political adversaries : 

" The nomination of the Hon. Henry W. Williams as a candidate for 
Judge of the Supreme Court is a good one. He was the best man named 
before the Bepublican Convention, and possesses legal and moral qualifica- 
tions for the responsible position to which he has been nominated." 

He is of the Webster and Clay school of politics, and daring the recent 
civil war, from the beginning to the end, did everything in his power, through 
his means, his voice, and his votes, to strengthen the hands and encourage 
the hearts of the loyal people in the struggle to maintain the Union. 

Who, and what Judge Sharswood is, as a public man, will appear from 
what follows : 

Early in the history of this nation political sentiment became divided on 
the powers of the National and State Governments, and- their true relations 
to each other. On these divisions two great parties were subsequently 
founded. The one, known as the State Rights party, had John C. Calhoun 
for its champion ; and the other, for its recognized leader, had the great ex- 
pounder of the Constitution, Daniel Webster. The former held free trade, 
and the right of nullification and secession as cardinal doctrines, denying 
the constitutional power of Congress to impose duties for protection, and 



8 

claiming nullification and secession as inherent rights of a State. The lat- 
ter denied these assumptions, and between these conflicting principles and 
parties there has been perpetual warfare. In the main, the old Whig party- 
ranged itself under the banner of Webster, and the Democratic party under 
that of Calhoun. One of the legitimate fruits of the State right* doctrine 
was the rebellion of 1833, in South Carolina ; the avowed object of which 
was to nullify the protective tariff law of Congress, enacted in 1828. The 
country at that time was saved from a disastrous civil war by the firmness 
of President Jackson, the wisdom of Congress, and the patriotism of Gen- 
eral Scott. That effort at rebellion and civil war failed ; and the principle 
on which it was based was repudiated. But in 1860 and 1861 South Caro- 
lina, and other rebel States, again endeavored to put in force their States 
rights doctrine of secession. The sympathy, imbecility, and connivance of 
President Buchanan, and his advisers, so contributed to the success of the 
effort, that its consummation could only be prevented by a long, desperate, 
and bloody civil war. In the end, and after fearful sacrifices of life and trea- 
sure, the rights and power of the National Government were again vindicated; 
and the Calhoun doctrine of secession was again overthrown. Such at 
least has been the popular conviction, and cause for rejoicing ; and even 
.the worst of Southern rebels have been compelled to confess it, and for two 
years past have been weeping over their "lost cause." Strange, sad and 
incredible as it may seem, we are already called upon to fight these great 
issues over again ! The Democratic party, with Judge Sharswood for its 
leader, and with Free Trade, State Rights and Secession upon its banner, 
is again marshaling its hosts, and now summoning us to the field of politi- 
cal combat, on these same issues ! That party, at their National Conven- 
tions in 1856 and 1860, re-adopted what are known as the Virginia and 
Kentucky resolutions of 1798 and 1799, as part of their platforms. These 
resolutions are known as the embodiment of the old State rights and Cal- 
houn doctrines. They do not regard the relations of the States or people 
thereof to the United States as constituting a government, in the ordinary 
and proper sense of the term, but declare them to be merely a compact, and 
that " as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common 
judge, each, party has an equal right to judge for itself, AS wbll of infrac- 
tions, AS or THE MODE AKD MEASURE OF BEDEESS, " 

Under this free Democratic charter for rebellion, the lawful election of 
Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States was claimed by the 
people of the rebel States as an "infraction " of the " compact ;" and they 
chose secession and civil war as the "•mode,'^^ and the destruction of the 
Union and State independence as ''the measure of redress.''^ The Demo- 
cratic party at its last National Convention proclaimed the war -a failure ; 
and it has now put in the field a life-long Free Trade and State Sights can- 



didate, whom Judge Black endorses as one who "will stand by the Consti- 
tution and give pure law," viz : Who will stand by the Constitution as the 
State Rights party construe it, and give us such "pure law" as Judge 
Black has given President Buchanan and Andrew Johnson. 

Judge Sharswood and his party friends have not only denied the lawful 
power of the IS'ational Government to coerce a rebellious State, to make and 
enforce a draft, to make paper money a legal tender, to emancipate and 
arm negroes, to punish rebels and traitors by disfranchisement, to suspend 
the writ of habeas corpus in time of rebellion, or to arrest and try offenders 
in time of war by court-martial ; but they hold that ail these things, though 
actually done, were illegally and wrongfully done, and therefore settled 
nothing I Or, as the Democratic organ, (the Philadelphia Age,) in a re- 
cent elaborate editorial on the Republican State platform, thus expresses 
the same idea : " We put it to the sober thoughts of the people of Penn- 
sylvania, whether they would not have all these grave pending questions 
decided according to law, and not according to war, just, in fact, as they 

WOULD have been DECIDBD HAD THEY ARISEN EIGHT YEARS AGO, OR HAD NO 
WAR TAKEN PLACE." 

Is, then, the "lost cause" not lost ? Has the late dreadful war decided 
nothing ? Is the right of secession an open question ? Has slavery not 
been abolished ? Are not the four millions of bondmen free ? Has our 
national debt no legal existence ? Have the victors no power over the 
vanquished ? Have the rebel States and people lost no rights by rebellion ? 
Have our sacrifices of blood and treasure been ail made in vain ? Fellow- 
citizens, weigh well these solemn questions, and answer them at the ballot- 
box on the second Tuesday of October next. 

Having concluded to reserve for a future occasion some remarks on party 
organization, and other topics, this address might here properly close. But, 
it may be asked by some, is Judge Sharswood, indeed, the political heretic 
herein set forth ? "A man is known by the company he keeps," says the 
old adage. We have the right to assume, and have assumed, that the Judge 
is of the same political faith as his party, and the public will hold him re- 
sponsible for all the guilty acts and omissions of his party. •There can be 
no mistaking the true position of the man who recently delivered an elabo- 
rate opinion denying the constitutional power of Congress to make paper 
money a legal tender. (See the case of Borie vs. Trott, l^egal Intelligencer 
of March 18, 1864, page 92.) And when we go further back, and examine 
his early history, we find ample justification for all <we have written, and 
more. So long ago as April, 1834, he appeared as " The Orator of the 
Day," at a meeting of a States' Rights Association, in Philadelphia. We 
here copy some of the proceedings of that interesting convocation from 



10 

"' The Examiner and Journal of Political Economy, Devoted to the Ad- 
vancement of the Cause of State Rights and Free Trade, vol. 1, page 309. 

The orator on that occasion delivered a long and carefully prepared vin- 
dication and eulogy of the State Rights Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, 
herein before cited ; and summed up his elaborate endorsements thereof as 
follows : 

"TFe come hack to our starting place, and finding nothing in the Consti- 
tution establishing any final judge of the enumerated powers, prohibitions, 
and reserved rights, it must rest upon the admitted principles of general 
law, in cases of compact between parties having no common superior. Each 
State has the right to judge for itself op the infractions of the com- 
pact, AND to choose FOR ITSELF THE MOST PROPER AND EFFICIENT REMEDIES." 

The better to exhibit still further, if possible, the true character of that 
meeting and its distinguished orator, the following toasts are copied from 
the proceedings. {Same vol., p. 312 :) 

Toast: "John C. Calhoun — The first to throw himself into the breach 
against Federal usurpation. May he live to see his principles predominant 
throughout the world.'' 

Toast : " The Patriots, otherwise called Nullifiers of South Carolina — 
their memories will be cherished when the advocates of the Force Bill are 
forgotten, or remembered with execration. " 

Toast : " The State of South Carolina — as her principles are cherished, 
we need not fear usurpation, either in the Legislative, Judicial, or Execu- 
tive departments of the Government, " * 

The Hod.. John C. Calhoun was among those invited to this meeting by 
Judge Sharswood and others ; but declined in a published letter of sym- 
pathy. 

We thus submit, as briefly as possible, the record of the Democratic can- 
didate, and of the party which placed him in nomination. We feel that no 
added comments could do justice to the subject ; and only ask you, fellow- 
citizens, to examine the whole record with care, and under a sense of your 
solemn responsibilities to your country, render your verdict at the ensuing 
election. .,. 

By order of the committee. 

F. JORDAN", Chairman. 

Geo. W. Hamersly, \ ^ . 

J. ROBLEY DUNGLISON, | ^^<^'f'^^«'^^^^- 



OF THE 

UNION MPUBLICiN STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE. 



Committee Rooms, ( 
Harmsburg, August 27, 1867. j 

TO THE PEOPLE OP PENNSYLYAmA : 

Fellow citizens : — In a recent address from this Committee your atten- 
tion was invited to sundry issues and principles involved in the pending 
canvass ; and also to the political opinions and judicial decisions of George 
Sharswood. a short review of the principal occurrences, since the last 
State campaign, is now considered proper. The contest of 1866 was fought, 
in the main, upon the amendments proposed by Congress to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. These were national issues ; and on the one 
side were arrayed the Union Republican party and the "Boys in Blue ;" 
and on the other President Johnson, the Democratic party, and all the rebels 
and their sympathizers from one end of the Union to the other. On these 
momentous issues Pennsylvania rallied in her strength ; and polled over 
one hundred and forty thou&and more votes than at her preceding annual 
election. Among the results, were the triumphant election of Major Gen- 
eral John W. Geary, for Governor, and the endorsement of Congress, by 
the return of a delegation more unanimous for the right than ever known 
before in the history of the Commonwealth. Other loyal States united with 
us, and the insane and wicked "Policy" of President Johnson^ and of his 
new friends and allies, was overwhelmed by the unprecedented and mag- 
nificent popular majority of four hundred thousand votes ! Every State 
which had been faithful to the National Government and the cause of the 
Union during the war, approved the proposed amendments. Every rebel 
State, except Tennessee, rejected them ; and under the rebel provisional 
governments created by President Johnson, rebel power resumed its authority, 
and became dominant in their executive, legislative and judicial depart- 
ments. Vagrant and labor laws virtually re-enslaved the freedmen. Loyal 
men were outlawed and trampled under foot ; and the revived spirit of the 
rebellion was everywhere triumphant. Riots, murders, outrages and as- 
sassinations, were the order of the day, and security for either the lives or 
the property of loyal men was nowhere found. Traitors had front seats, 



12 

loyalty had been made odious, and treasonable conspirators against the life 
of the nation were vindictive and rampant. 

Such was the condition of public affairs in~the South when Congress con- 
vened in December, 1866. This nation had solemnly resolved, and voted, 
that the Union should be restored on the basis of loyalty and justice ; and 
to this end was the Fortieth Congress elected. Hence were passed the Ee- 
construction laws, in execution of the recent popular verdict. The Presi" 
dent vetoed them, refusing to accept or abide by the decision of the people' 
to whom he had so often and so vauntingly appealed. Congress re-enacted 
them over the vetoes, by more than the required two-thirds ; and they are 
now the laws of the land. Under them, including the amendments of last 
session, reconstruction is rapidly progressing ; and would doubtless ere long 
be successfully accomplished, but for the persistent obstructions by the 
President, in defiance of Congress and the popular will. Justice is being 
done ; loyal men, white and black, have been protected from the malice of 
defeated rebels; treason, in a measure at least, has "been made odious," 
and traitors have been compelled " to take back seats" — as Andrew Johu" 
son, in a lucid interval, declared they should. Even the better portion of 
the rebels admit the justice of these reconstruction laws, and cheerfully 
acquiesce in their provisions. General James Longstrekt, a distinguished 
rebel officer, in a recent putlished letter from 'New Orleans, expresses him- 
self as follows : 

" I shall set out by assuming a' proposition that I hold to be self-evident, 
viz ! The highest of human laws is the law that is established by appeal to 
arms The great principles that divided political parties prior to the war 
were thoroughly discussed, by our wisest statesmen. When argument was 
exhausted ^resort was had to compromise. When compromise was unavail- 
ing, discussion was renewed and expedients were sought, but none could be 
found to suit the emergency. Appeal was finally made to the sword, to 
determine which of the claims was the true construction of constitutional 
law. The sword has decided in favor of the North ; and what they claimed 
as principles, cease to be principles, and are become law. The views that we 
hold cease to be principles, because they are opposed to law. It is, there- 
fore, our duty to abandon ideas that are obsolete, and conform to the re- 
quirements of law. The military bill and amendments are peace offerings. 
We should accept them as such, and place ourselves upon them as the start- 
ing point from which to meet future political issues as they arise. ''^ 

Jeff. Thompson, another rebel General, in a late letter to George D. 
Prentice, Esq , endorses the reconstruction laws of Congress thus: 

"The confederate government wiped out States rights the first year of its 
existence, a bloody war wiped out slavery, and wiped out the confederacy, 
so they are obsolete ideas ; and the. plain question now presented is, ' Will 



13 

you accept citizenship under our terms, as contained in this law ?' and I 
emphatically answer, yesP' 

It is greatly to be regretted that terms which are so acceptable to the 
fighting rebels of the South should be so distasteful, and cause so much 
clamor, from their non-combatant sympathisers in thd North. 

The enemies of the United States having been finally defeated in battle, 
united their efforts to elect sympathizers from the North, and to procure the 
admission of enough rebels from the South, to enable them, through Gon- 
gress, to attain what they had lost in the field. This programme was frus- 
trated by the loyal people at the ballot box, in the election of the Fortieth 
Congress. Defeated in open war, and again in Congress, these baflied con- 
spiriiors, as a last resort, are endeavoring to save " the lost cause" through 
the courts. They deny that anything has been settled by the war ; and 
boldly proclaim that "all these grave pending questions" must be decided, 
"just in fact, as they would have been decided had they arisen eight years 
ago, or had no war taken place.'''' (.Philadelphia Age, July 8th.) They 
not only deny the constitutional power of Congress to impose terms upon 
the rebel States or people, but deny that Congress itself is a lawful body, 
because the rebel States are unrepresented. Hence, the recent application 
to the Supreme Court of the United States for injunctions, to nullify the 
Reconstruction laws of Congress in Mississippi, Georgia, and other rebel 
States. In the same inierest, and of the same character, is the nomina- 
tioa of George Sharswood, a well known and life long State rights man, 
for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, He judicially denies the power 
of Congress to issue paper money, or to give it value by making it a legal 
tender. (Borie vs. Trott, Legal Intelligencer, of March 18, 1864<, page 92.) 
Judges Thompson and Woodward, of the same court, not only announce 
these same doctrines in the case of Mervine vs. Sailor et al., (Legal Intelli- 
gencer of June 16 and 30, 1865, pages 188 and 205,) but in the cases of 
Kneedler et al. vs. Lane et ah, (9 Wright's reports, page 238,) denied the 
power of Congress, in time of war, to draft men into the military service. The 
principles declared in these decisions were as hostile to the national exist- 
ence and perpetuity as any assault ever made by General Lee and bis 
armed legions at Gettysburg, or elsewhere. It requires no argument to 
demonstrate that if these decisions on currency and the draft had prevailed, 
and become the established law of the land, success in the war would have 
been more impossible than if the rebel army at Richmond' had been rein- 
forced with half a million of men 1 Is it safe, therefore, to place another 
man, entertaining these opinions, on the Supreme Bench of the State ? 

Forewarned should be forearmed. These superior courts are now the 
"last ditch" of the rebellion; and the country eialls upon the "Boys in 
Blue," and every loyal voter, to rally once more to the rescue I 



14 

Complete your county and township organizations without delay. With 
this thoroughly done, victory is sure ; without it, there is danger. Revive 
at once every where the Loyal Leagues and associations, which proved of 
such vast service daring the war. Let every patriotic man feel that he has 
something to do in the good work, and proceed forthwith to do it with all 
his might. Exclude all side issues, local quarrels, and personal aspirations, 
and labor only for the public good. Be not deceived by the stale clamor 
about negro equality, and negro suffrage. These worn-out hobbies were 
supposed to have been ridden to death at our last two annual elections, 
when, as now, they were declared by our enemies to be the great issues of 
the contest. They are now raised up and brought upon the track again, 
mounted by the same riders, and destined to the same ignoble end. Be not 
discouraged by the vain boasting of our adversaries. They have been in- 
gloriously defeated in every contest for years, and cannot now prevail against 
us. The loyal and patriotic people of the State have heretofore nobly sus- 
tained us, and the cause of the country, under the heavy pressure and dis- 
couragement of drafts, taxation, bereavement and carnage ; and when noth- 
ing but an abiding faith in an over-ruling Providence, and in the justice of 
our cause, enabled us to see the end. Surely there can be no faltering now, 
when the goal is almost reached ! and when one more united rally for our 
principles and our flag will enable us to secure the ripe fruits of the late 
dreadful civil war, and to garner them safely for ourselves and our children. 

We stand over the ruins of a gigantic rebellion, the most formidable enemy 
ever encountered by republican institutions. We stand close by the graves 
of three hundred thousand of our noblest men, who counted their lives well 
spent when offered freely for Union and Liberty. In the presence of their 
speechless but eloquent dust; in the presence of the doubting and sneering 
enemies of free dovernment, at home and aboard ; in full view of the op- 
pressed millions, who from beneath crushing despotisms wsiched our flag 
with tears, and hopes, and prayers, throughout the four long jcars of bloody 
conflict ; before the rapidly coming millions of the future ; before a God of 
justice, and in the name of all that makes faithfulness to Him, and honor 
among men, we stand pledged to secure and maintain forever the principles 
Hm* which our brothers died. 

By order of the committee. 

F. JORDAN", Chairman. 

J. ROBLEY DUNGLISON,; ^^^^^^<^^^^' 



AE'D THE HOLDERS OF GEEEKBACXS. 



EEAD, EEFLECT— i^IsTD HAKD TO YOUE l^EIGHBOE, 



In 1861 eleven States seceded; and since then only twenty-three have 
been represented in Congress, until the admission of Tennessee in 1866. 

All the United States Bonds — 5-20's, 7-.30's and 10-40's-— all the green- 
backs, and all the National Banks, were created by this Congress of twenty- 
three States. 

President Johnson calls this an " assumed Gongress^^ — therefore not legal. 
His supporters and the Democrats call it a " Bump Gongress," and a " usurp- 
ing Gongress,^^ and hence not a lawful Congress; and the great effort has 
been to elect Congressmen in the North, and admit enough from the rebel 
States to enforce this " Policy. ^^ 

i If a Congress representing but twenty-three States be not a lawful Con- 
gress, then every United States Bond, and all our greenbacks, and National 
Bank notes, are worth nothing ; because an unlawful Congress could not 
make lawful bonds or lawful money. 

The mad effort, so recently made by the rebels and their sympathizers, to 
destroy this Government hy force of arms, failed. Thus far the attempt 
to do the same thing, through Congress, has also failed, because of the ac- 
tion of the loyal voters at the ballot box ; and the last effort at destruction 
is now being made through ths Courts. 

Witness the recent attempt by Democratic lawyers to induce the Su- 
preme Court of the United States to issue an injunction, nullifjing the Ke- 
eo:iigtruotion liaws of Congress in Mississippi, Georgia, and other reb@l 
States. Read also the opinion of George Sharswoob, the Democratie 
nominee for Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in which he 
gravely denies the constitutional power of Congress to make paper money 
a legal tender. {Borie vs. Trott, Legal Intelligencer of March 18, 1864, 
page 92.) Judges Woodward and Thompscn of the same Court, announced 
from the bench the same alarming doctrine, in 1865, {See Mervine vs. 
Sailor et ah, Legal Intelligencer of June 16 and 30, 1865, pag-es 18S and 205.) 

And this, toj, in the face of the fact, that the Superior Courts of every 



. 16 

loyal State in which the question has been raised, have sustained the power 
of Congress. 

As five judges compose the Supreme Court it requires, therefore, but lit- 
tle knowledge of either arithmetic or law to estimate the imminent danger 
of putting any more men of Judge Sharswood's opinions on the Supreme 
Bench of the State 

If you believe the present Congress to be unlawful, or desire our Na- 
tional currency and Government Bonds to be declared unlawful, vote for 
George Sharswood. 

If you believe the present Congress to be lawful, or desire their action 
on Currency and Bonds to stand good, vote to sustain them,— ;for the party 
that created the Greenbacks and the Bonds, the party that sustained the 
war, and compelled submission to the IsTational authority, — and that stands 
pledged to keep faith with the Bondholders, and to maintain the National 
credit — vote for Henry W. Williams, the worthy and honored nominee of 
this party. 



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